Illicit Drug Use, Urbanization, and Lifestyle in the Netherlands

Abstract

National drug use prevalence figures represent average rates of use among the general population. Such prevalence figures are often used to make cross-national comparisons and to evaluate the effectiveness of different national drug policies. It is argued here that these national-level numbers mask interesting and important differences between local areas. In 1997, researchers asked approximately 22,000 respondents, selected from five categories of distinct address density municipalities throughout the Netherlands, about their lifestyles and use of licit and illicit drugs. The data collected indicated divergence between drug use prevalence in urban and rural municipalities, whereas other drug use indicators, such as age of first use, seemed unaffected by address density. The survey data also revealed distinctions between drug use prevalence in Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, and Utrecht, although the cities occupy the same level of address density. This paper addresses some of these discrepancies in prevalence rates and offers an explanation in terms of the differential “lifestyles” of the various cities represented by sample respondents.